[4.11.8] Desktop icons rearrange on each login

Desktop icons order resets if there is an equal number of icons in any two or more columns.
version 4.11.8-0ubuntu0.1

*** Bug 11194 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Does this bug occurs on your desktop?

I've never encountered this (otherwise I'd happily fix it). Does it happen when:

- you stop and restart xfdesktop? (xfdesktop --quit; xfdesktop &)

- during a screen size change?

- during login?

Just trying to figure out when it happens for you. Thanks!

Hello! Sorry for delay. I've just tried all of enlisted items, but the icons are still OK. I've noticed that after this bug occurs - number of .rc files in /home/USER/.config/xfce4/desktop/ incresing with a bit different resolutions (First time I have counted 12 rc files). And this happens on two Xubuntu machines with magic number of icons (adding or removing the icon may represent bug every reboot or fix it)
Adding another panel - made the icons to fit in one row. Deleting this panel reverted changes in icon order (I think it is standart behavior)

Is there a way to make united .rc file for all resolutions?

Here's the rationale for the rc files:
The .rc files are how Xfdesktop sees the space left on the screen. Things like the xfce4-panel may reserve space and xfdesktop respects that. The overall idea is that if your monitor goes through a couple resolution changes when your PC starts up or if you decide to play a game then your desktop should return to its old layout when it goes back to that resolution. Same thing with multi-monitor changes; you can have different layouts when your laptop is docked. The downside is that Xfdesktop doesn’t know when an icon position change should invalidate the other saved resolutions so in that case icons may change positions but Xfdesktop tries to minimize those moves.

Is it just one icon that gets messed up or all of them do? It may be due to something changing that causes xfdesktop uses an older .rc file (different panels or something like it on the desktop).

(In reply to Eric Koegel from comment #6)
> Here's the rationale for the rc files:
> The .rc files are how Xfdesktop sees the space left on the screen. Things
> like the xfce4-panel may reserve space and xfdesktop respects that. The
> overall idea is that if your monitor goes through a couple resolution
> changes when your PC starts up or if you decide to play a game then your
> desktop should return to its old layout when it goes back to that
> resolution. Same thing with multi-monitor changes; you can have different
> layouts when your laptop is docked. The downside is that Xfdesktop doesn’t
> know when an icon position change should invalidate the other saved
> resolutions so in that case icons may change positions but Xfdesktop tries
> to minimize those moves.
>
> Is it just one icon that gets messed up or all of them do? It may be due to
> something changing that causes xfdesktop uses an older .rc file (different
> panels or something like it on the desktop).

All icons change their order. The locate in top left corner.

I have noticed that the order resets when I logout and login. Three times in row this happened. I will try to remove gnome settings daemon and gsettings data convert from autostart and keep watching over my problem

My computer created yet another file with such config "icons.screen0-1008x584.rc"

[/home/yanpas/Рабочий стол/Лекции.doc]
row=0
col=0

[44A8-6CC0]
row=0
col=0

[Корзина]
row=0
col=0

[/]
row=0
col=0

[/home/yanpas]
row=0
col=0

Hi,
Please, inspects your file /home/USER/.cache/session-***.

It happened to me, and seeing this file, i see that there are many programs which automatically run multiple times.

I suspect that when you save the session, multipes xfdesktop try to write the same file, creating problems.

But it's just a suspicion.

Eric,
I have to admit that also suspicious of my changes in the distribution of icons. This weekend I'll try to test with this change reverted..

Regards,
Matias.

Hi,

You think this also happens to you?.
 * https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11188

If yes, the problem is that the desktop is starting with some theme, this implies a font size, etc etc, resulting in a grid size, and therefore, it can change the order of icons.
After a second, xfsettingsd set your preferred theme with different fonts, spaces, etc, resulting in the final grid size.

The icons were reorganized, but as the screen size is the same, never save a copy of the pocision icons. Only replacement it by new info.

YES! I've noticed that my shimmer-project theme sometimes doesn't have time to load. For example Transmission gets default GTK icon on autostart and only restarting it changes the icon to the theme icon. Maybe some elements start in default theme and lose their order. Even if it so the bug persists, but in another component maybe

PS Another example: I have Clementine and Thunderbird on autostart. If I logout and then log in - thes programs doesn't have my GTK theme. Clementine is ugly-grey and thunderbird fonts are weird

Ok,
In my tests, applying the patch to xfsettingd seems that fix the bug.

Whell, The xubuntu people should add the patch, but surely take time.
You dare to compiling xfce4-settings to test?.

I will try to compile and will be watching bug

Hello. I think you meant patch from bug 11188. But which of them? And how to change source code automaticly with these + and -
PS In previous comment I read it from mobile phone and misunderstood.

Hi,
The best (Easy) way is compile directly the git version.

> sudo apt-get install git
> sudo apt-get build-dep xfce4-setting
> git clone git://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings
> cd xfce4-settings
> ./autogen.sh
NOTE: This command should be more complete, but for this test not worry so much.
> make

The next step would be: sudo make install, but recommend overwrite the executable.

> killall xfsettingsd
Note: Not worry by theme change, and maybe here you see changes in yours icons.
> sudo mv ./xfsettingsd/xfsettingsd /usr/bin/
> xfsettingsd &

And restart you desktop.. ;)

And where is the patch in these steps, that small file with + and - lines. Or this patch has been already applied to the project and I need only to compile newer version from source?

> Or this patch has been already applied to the project and I need only to compile newer version from source?

Yes. ;)
The patch was added two months ago,but not enough changes to make a new release of xfce4-settings.

Created attachment 5813
icon bug

(In reply to Matias De lellis from comment #18)
> > Or this patch has been already applied to the project and I need only to compile newer version from source?
>
> Yes. ;)
> The patch was added two months ago,but not enough changes to make a new
> release of xfce4-settings.

Hello! Desktop icons behave good, there were no any self-replacements. But I've found new bug with xfsettingsd, which is not fixed in github. Transmission non-theme icon. Screenshot is attached. When I start my computer - I get default ugly icon, only after restaring transmission app icon becomes normal

Created attachment 5814
Bug again

Oh no! Just after a comment bug reproduced again. All I did before was plaing GTA IV in resolution 1680x1050. Then I set my creen to my native resolution 1920x1080 (everything is still OK). Then I logged out and logged in - and icons are mixed.
Also on logging in my clementine player, which is loaded automaticly didn't fully catched gtk theme, it has weird and wrong Font.

Ohh.. Ok. :(

Yesterday also happened to me. I will continue investigating.

Regards.

Hi everyone,
Nothing new. Sorry.. I Cannot isolate it :S

I reverted all my changes (I was worried about these. haha).. and the bug is still there.. :S

Perhaps it is a old bug, and only we discovered it now.

Only one detail. I discovered that it occurs when I close a session with many open applications and the "Save session" option is activated.

And noticing that is a lot easier reproduce it when restart the machine instead just close and open the session. Not know what is the difference. :S

Eric,
Not think that is related, but researching a bit found a bug:

> https://github.com/xfce-mirror/xfdesktop/commit/cfe5a0ad88b84a23a4cd6d18a25635ec84cbaf68

In this commit you introduce a big mem leak. Is not noticeable due it's just when close the session. I doubt the necessity of the commit, but surely you have your reasons. ;)

Well, the problem is that xfdesktop_application_get() increases the references and you have to add a unref after use it.

The obvious problem is the mem leak. but not the most worrying

The major problem is that you're assuming that XfdesktopApplication may be NULL. If XfdesktopApplication already NULL (understood is already closed), when you call xfdesktop_application_get(), you're starting an entirely new desktop !!!!.

..and due the missing unref basically never close it. Ends up being killed by the session. (This last is just supposition. haha. =)

Any idea how to debug this?
For now I'll add some g_print to see the sequence on shutdown.

Regards,
Matias.

Created attachment 5866
Versions of xfce-files.

While starting up icon positions are partially lost. Some icons stay where I put them, some get moved to default (top-left-down-left-sorting).

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xfdesktop4/+bug/1335492

Hi,
Dup of https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11266

Please, add launchpad info on these bug.

Regards.

Hi Jan Do.

Yes, the workaround #89 works well for me, thank you.
However I'm afraid that the bug discourages many beginners of XFCE.

(In reply to Ponec from comment #106)
> Hi Jan Do.
>
> Yes, the workaround #89 works well for me, thank you.
> However I'm afraid that the bug discourages many beginners of XFCE.

It discouraged me long time ago...
I left xfce with no regret

Patch from #89 solve issue with desktop icons order reset for me.
Thanks a lot!

Correction. Looks like I still have this issue, but more rarely with #98 patch.

problem persists here for xfdesktop 4.12.3 (OpenSuSE Tubleweed)

auditing (summary) shows the following after logon:

lots of reads from /home/thomas/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0-2544x971.rc
and then suddenly
a create icons.screen0-2544x971.rc.new.16834.tmp
a rename/move icons.screen0-2544x971.rc.new.16834.tmp to icons.screen0-2544x971.rc.new
a rename/move icons.screen0-2544x971.rc.new to icons.screen0-2544x971.rc

everything triggered/done by /usr/bin/xfdesktop (PID=16834)

inode IDs before and after logon differ and the original contents of icons.screen0-2544x971.rc are lost

meanwhile I have already 2 "solutions"

1. (the older one, from/for XFCE 4.10 (see Bug 9192))
- at every shutdown/startup of the machine I create a backup and
- there is a desktop shortcut to restore the last of those backups

2.
- systemd service looking for greeter process => removes all write permissions for .config/xfce4/desktop/ folder
- autostart script which 60 seconds after logon adds write permission for .config/xfce4/desktop/ folder
- obsoletes backup/restore

For me THE question is/remains, why at all has the positions file to be written to at logon/startup?

As it happens this seems not to be necessary, as my "solution" 2 shows.

Hello, I've never had any problem in XFCE desktop I bought a new computer some days ago and I've starting to experience this bug.
Is it solved in version 4.14?
Is it going to be solved someday? Is there anyone working on it?
Is there a "full functional" workaround? The most common "solution" (so to speak) I've read about is giving

sudo chattr -i ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*

Thanks.

Hi underpass, the only workaround i found yet is to use gnome desktop

Installed xubuntu 18.04 updated and the icons moved here and then.
The rc files in $HOME/.config/xfce4/desktop/ directory are created only when the icons move.

I thought that having all those rc files must have borked something, so I made a script that launches on startup that keeps only the latest icons*rc and removes all the other rc files. https://pastebin.com/0HFjZrGi
The script requires inotify-tools package installed and notify-send (to keep track on when the icon positions are saved).

The icons do seem to stay on login/logout, except the Trash that want's to stay in the top-left corner. Sometimes even File System and Home icons move too. They are managed by xfconf, maybe that's why their position is being reset. So I turned them off. If I need them, I can make a desktop file that launches thunar with those paths can replace them.

Now the icons do move if the panel is resized and then logout is made after that.
As soon as the panel is resized, it sets the new panel strut. That triggers a change of _NET_WORKAREA of the root window property, but if the icons are not moved a new rc file will not be created. That is when the icons reset their position on login.

This works for me:
The first script is set to autostart on login.
The second one is used for logout / reboot.

https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=49764#p49764

The first script waits untill all the the panels are in the window stack, then sets the folder permissions of .config/xfce/desktop to 755. It also removes all but the latest rc file when a new rc is created in the folder. Requires inotify-tools to monitor when the rc files are created.

The second script opens a yad dialog and sets the folder permissions of .config/xfce/desktop to non-writable when logout / shutdown / restart is selected. Requires yad.

I just use the following workaround:

1. Move the file with desired desktop icons positions to "/etc/xdg/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0.rc".

2. Create a new desktop file in "/etc/xdg/autostart" that deletes "/home/USERNAME/.config/xfce4/desktop" and reloads the xfdesktop - it has the following contents (use your user name instead of USERNAME and adapt the sleep interval if needed):

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=bash -c 'sleep 3 && rm -rf /home/USERNAME/.config/xfce4/desktop && xfdesktop --reload'
Name=Xfdesktop Reload
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false

This restores my desired desktop icons positions on every login to XFCE. Note that when you want to rearrange your icons you need to update the "/etc/xdg/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0.rc" file manually.

*** Bug 14031 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Actually this bug seems to be easy to reproduce:

1. Adjust the colum-size of the panel to something odd
2. Logout
3. Login
---> All Icon-Posotions will reset

If you already have profiles for all possible free-screen-size combinations, delete some of the configs in ".config/xfce4/desktop," to make the bug happen again.

IMO one aspect which makes thing over-complex is, that profiles are saved per free-screen-size in .config/xfce4/desktop, instead of saving them per display-configuration (monitor setup and resolution).

IMO not good to make smart decisions for the user when only free-screen-size changes ... the user can re-sort desktop items on its own on things like panel-size change.

Hope I will find some time to work on this bug soon.

@alexxcons the patch proposed in Bug 14979 might help or worsen this one.

Hello, I've tested the xfdesktop 4.13.3 on Debian Testing (installed from the Experimental repository) and the problem is still there, exactly the same as in 4.12.
Any chance to have it solved in version 4.14? Sorry, I'm no coder so I can't be of much help here.

Created attachment 8463
patch to add symlink to the latest working config, used as fallback

(In reply to Underpass from comment #119)
> Any chance to have it solved in version 4.14?

Here we go.

One concrete problem is, that opening the setting menu of the panel will add one extra pixel to the panel(some border showing the focus). That will change the size of space available for xfdesktop.
If the desktop is saved now, it will be e.g. saved as icons.screen0-1366x701.rc

After a logout + relogin the panel will not have this extra-pixel. So xfdesktop searches for icons.screen0-1366x700.rc ... possibly does not exist --> Fallback to just place all icons in a line.

The attached patch will always create a symlink "icons.screen.last.rc" on save, pointing to the current *.rc file, whenever a new .rc file is written.

This fix cures the symptoms. IMO should be fine for 4.14 .. however later on I would start to work on the actual problem, which is, that xfdesktop does not use the whole screen, but only the workarea. (Another logical error is, that the icon size is not saved in the .rc file, together with the grid, but somewhere else, independently)

Created attachment 8464
patch to add symlink to the latest working config, used as fallback

forgot to unlink existing links before adding link

(In reply to alexxcons from comment #120)
> Created attachment 8463 [details]
> patch to add symlink to the latest working config, used as fallback
>
> (In reply to Underpass from comment #119)
> > Any chance to have it solved in version 4.14?
>
> Here we go.
>
> One concrete problem is, that opening the setting menu of the panel will add
> one extra pixel to the panel(some border showing the focus). That will
> change the size of space available for xfdesktop.
> If the desktop is saved now, it will be e.g. saved as
> icons.screen0-1366x701.rc
>
> After a logout + relogin the panel will not have this extra-pixel. So
> xfdesktop searches for icons.screen0-1366x700.rc ... possibly does not
> exist --> Fallback to just place all icons in a line.
>
> The attached patch will always create a symlink "icons.screen.last.rc" on
> save, pointing to the current *.rc file, whenever a new .rc file is written.
>
> This fix cures the symptoms. IMO should be fine for 4.14 .. however later on
> I would start to work on the actual problem, which is, that xfdesktop does
> not use the whole screen, but only the workarea. (Another logical error is,
> that the icon size is not saved in the .rc file, together with the grid, but
> somewhere else, independently)

as i said in comment #88 why using the workarea instead of the whole screen

> as i said in comment #88 why using the workarea instead of the whole screen
After some thinking on your proposal, I have to say: Its complicated.
One problem is, that xfdesktop currently has no support for multiple screens. The "screen0" in the name of the *.rc file currently is just hardcoded, whereas the workarea describes the free area among all attached screens. (So the current screen0 actually is a lie)

Just changing the filename to screen res. for most users might be sufficient. However e.g. if you have a laptop with docking station, you might actually want to use two configurations, with and without extra screen, currently resulting in two *.rc files.

Following your proposal, If you name the file like the first screen, than there will be only one file. A solution could be to put the res. of all available screens into the filename ... but that looks like an ugly workaround for me.

IMO much better would be to have one file per screen, named something like "monitor id"."screen resolution".rc
Each of these files could than consist as well background image info, icon size, etc.
However that would be a bigger change. I opened a seperate bug for that: bug #15344 . Will try to work on it when I have time.

Created attachment 8467
same patch for the xfce-4.12 branch

Attached the same patch for the xfce 4.12 branch (the original patch refuses to be applied there)

Please test it, if you can. I would like to push it soon.

I think "last" is misleading in the filename, I'd personally go with "latest".
Other than that, this looks very non-intrusive.

Not sure which problems it fixes exactly because this bugreport is blown way out of proportion and it's impossible to read and understand it all (and to be sure that it's really about *one* bug). But if you have good experiences I guess/hope it won't hurt :)

It's not only one bug. :)
The icons reposition in other cases.
The rc config file is created only after the icons are moved.
If you resize the panel just a few pixels close the panel settings
and logout the icons will move because their position isn't saved.

Another one is the Trash icon that moves to the upper left corner.
And sometimes File System and Home icon position resets.
But I think that those three icons are handled by Xfconf.

I just tried to fix the most critical case, in which all icons reset to default position (since no rc config matching the current workarea is found )

(In reply to Miloš Pavlović from comment #126)
> The rc config file is created only after the icons are moved.
> If you resize the panel just a few pixels close the panel settings
> and logout the icons will move because their position isn't saved.

This case should be fixed now. Since now the symlink will be used as fallback.

> Another one is the Trash icon that moves to the upper left corner.
> And sometimes File System and Home icon position resets.
> But I think that those three icons are handled by Xfconf.

I did not look into that so far .. should be reported as separate bug, if it is still a problem. This bug is already much too long.

Hi Alex,

This desktop icons order resets problem is also present now at Manjaro.

regards LF

inxi -Fxzc0
System: Host: dolphin Kernel: 5.0.10-2-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.13.3git-UNKNOWN
Distro: Manjaro Linux

xfdesktop --version
Dieses ist xfdesktop Version 4.13.3git-UNKNOWN, auf Xfce 4.13.
Erstellt mit GTK+ 3.24.7, verknüpft mit GTK+ 3.24.8.
Optionen bei der Erstellung:
Schreibtischmenü: aktiviert
Schreibtischsymbole: aktiviert
Schreibtischdateisymbole: aktiviert

pacman -Si xfwm4

Repository : extra
Name : xfwm4
Version : 4.12.5-1
Description : Xfce window manager
Architecture : x86_64
URL : http://www.xfce.org/
Licenses : GPL2
Groups : xfce4
Provides : None
Depends On : libxfce4ui libwnck libdrm hicolor-icon-theme
Optional Deps : None
Conflicts With : None
Replaces : None
Download Size : 491.47 KiB
Installed Size : 2028.00 KiB
Packager : Evangelos Foutras <evangelosNOSPAMfoutrelis.com>
Build Date : Sun Jul 29 15:24:36 2018
Validated By : MD5 Sum SHA-256 Sum Signature

xfwm4 --version
This is xfwm4 version 4.13.1git.UNKNOWN (revision UNKNOWN) for Xfce 4.13
Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Compiled against GTK+-3.24.5, using GTK+-3.24.8.

Build configuration and supported features:
- Startup notification support: Yes
- XSync support: Yes
- Render support: Yes
- Xrandr support: Yes
- Xpresent support: Yes
- Embedded compositor: Yes
- Epoxy support: Yes
- KDE systray proxy (deprecated): No

Hi Alex,

This desktop icons order resets problem is also present now at Manjaro.
(Funny is that there are different versions of xfce?)

regards LF

inxi -Fxzc0
System: Host: Kernel: 5.0.10-2-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.13.3git-UNKNOWN
Distro: Manjaro Linux

xfdesktop --version
Dieses ist xfdesktop Version 4.13.3git-UNKNOWN, auf Xfce 4.13.
Erstellt mit GTK+ 3.24.7, verknüpft mit GTK+ 3.24.8.
Optionen bei der Erstellung:
Schreibtischmenü: aktiviert
Schreibtischsymbole: aktiviert
Schreibtischdateisymbole: aktiviert

pacman -Si xfwm4

Repository : extra
Name : xfwm4
Version : 4.12.5-1
Description : Xfce window manager
Architecture : x86_64
URL : http://www.xfce.org/
Licenses : GPL2
Groups : xfce4
Provides : None
Depends On : libxfce4ui libwnck libdrm hicolor-icon-theme
Optional Deps : None
Conflicts With : None
Replaces : None
Download Size : 491.47 KiB
Installed Size : 2028.00 KiB
Packager : Evangelos Foutras <evangelosNOSPAMfoutrelis.com>
Build Date : Sun Jul 29 15:24:36 2018
Validated By : MD5 Sum SHA-256 Sum Signature

xfwm4 --version
This is xfwm4 version 4.13.1git.UNKNOWN (revision UNKNOWN) for Xfce 4.13
Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Compiled against GTK+-3.24.5, using GTK+-3.24.8.

Build configuration and supported features:
- Startup notification support: Yes
- XSync support: Yes
- Render support: Yes
- Xrandr support: Yes
- Xpresent support: Yes
- Embedded compositor: Yes
- Epoxy support: Yes
- KDE systray proxy (deprecated): No

Can i also add the 4.12 patch to 4.13 ? I have listed different versions of xfce?? So one or more --version commands must be wrong ?

Check the attachments, there is one patch for "master", which is the one you want for 4.13:
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/attachment.cgi?id=8464
An on for the "xfce-4.12" branch:
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/attachment.cgi?id=8467

They do the same thing .. the one for master just did not apply properly for the 4.12 branch for some reason.

Created attachment 8473
patch for master (add symlink to latest)

Modified patches to use "latest" instead of "last", like proposed by Simon.

Created attachment 8474
patch for xfce-4.12 (add symlink to latest)

Alexander Schwinn referenced this bugreport in commit 399090b197aee2cd98e3ba5c49a56632dd388eb8

Desktop icons order resets (Bug #11266) - Added link to last used configuration as fallback

https://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/commit?id=399090b197aee2cd98e3ba5c49a56632dd388eb8

Alexander Schwinn referenced this bugreport in commit e8bf69ddd4bb7099cdb389ac6715c097b50d43aa

Desktop icons order resets (Bug #11266) - Added link to last used configuration as fallback

https://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/commit?id=e8bf69ddd4bb7099cdb389ac6715c097b50d43aa

Pushed to master and 4.12 branch, to be released in 4.13.4 and 4.12.5 soon.